Archive for June, 2012

Multiple websites anyone? I know, I sound like a broken record, but hear me out one more time…

How many web sites are too many? Well, according to Google, having multiple sites is not a viable strategy. Google wants to see firms putting their efforts into one authoritative website.

Yes, one website.

Not two. Not Four. Not Six.

Why is this? Why isn’t it a better approach to have multiple legal websites? I could have, say, one site for my truck accidents, another for my auto accidents, and so on …

If you’re Google and you’re trying to return relevant, clear, specific results to consumers, you would think having a separate website for each practice area makes sense.

And there is the problem. It sounds logical.

Much of consumer marketing and brand building is counter-intuitive to lay people. And yes, that means lawyers. This has much to do with how brands work, and in this case the brand at issue is Google.

The brand? Huh?

Google’s brand is predicated on “organizing the world’s information,” so having five, 10, or 15 sites for every company makes this nearly impossible. Google has been clear that having one robust, authoritative site will put you at the front of the search results, rather than having a fragmented group of sites where each looks less authoritative.

So why do we keep coming back to this issue? Well, once again, we’ve encountered a client who is being told by one of the larger competitors in the marketplace that he must have multiple websites.

We can’t say this any more clearly: Multiple sites are NOT GOOD for your law firm, but saying they are good is an excellent way for web firms to charge more, make everything more complex and convince you that you need more.

Still not convinced? Well, we’ve proven this definitively. By shutting off multiple sites, we’ve seen traffic increase 20 percent! We’ve seen qualified traffic increase 50 percent and case generation increase nearly 80 percent to record heights. These eye-popping results came only two months after shutting down multiple sites and then incorporating those sections into their “branded” website.

Be careful out there. When the biggest players are giving outdated counsel at best, or self-serving counsel at worst – it get treacherous.